By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

SAN ANTONIO - Connecticut was supposed to be here. Georgia Tech proved it deserves to be here.

Just more than four months ago, these two teams played for the Preseason NIT Championship in Madison Square Garden in a game that exposed Connecticut as being human and elevated Georgia Tech as a legitimate contender. At 9:18 p.m. today, the two teams will play for the national championship at Alamodome.

There are some new players, and some players have gotten healthier since the Nov. 26 game, which Georgia Tech won 77-61, but fundamentally, not much has changed between then and tonight.

Connecticut is still ruled by star power: first-team All-American center Emeka Okafor, first-team Big East shooting guard Ben Gordon and Hall of Fame candidate coach Jim Calhoun(the announcement is today). The second-seeded Huskies (32-6) were the preseason No. 1 team, and they are one win away from vindicating that prediction.

Third-seeded Georgia Tech (28-9) remains a team of relatively unknown players with a newcomer coach who are banding together to beat supposedly more talented, more acclaimed opponents. Most college basketball fans probably know who Georgia Tech is by now, but that is only because of what the Yellow Jackets have done in reaching the Final Four.

So while tonight is technically a rematch of that November game, it is also a classic case of the underdogs facing fabulous superstars on the biggest stage of all - the national championship game.

"I don't think people really appreciate a good team these days," said Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt, 40, on the eve his first national title game. "We spend so much time focusing on the individual, we forget this is a team sport. In the NBA, it used to be the Knicks versus the Bullets, the Bucks versus the Celtics. Now, it's Shaq versus Yao Ming. What's that? That's not basketball. That's tennis . . . (Georgia Tech) is a team."

Indeed, the Yellow Jackets were a team that few knew about back in November when they shocked then-No. 1 Connecticut and went on to win their first 12 games.

"Connecticut was the No. 1 team with the two All-Americans, and we were kind of like that no-name team," Georgia Tech point guard Jarrett Jack said. "We went up there and knew we had a chance to make a name for ourselves."

It was easy to spot Connecticut in November. The Huskies had four returning starters, highly-rated freshmen, a No. 1 ranking and a coach in Calhoun who had already won a national title, in 1999.

Expectations in Storrs, Conn., were as high as they have been since that title year and weighed heavily throughout the season. Everyone knew Connecticut could play with any team in the nation, which made six regular-season losses difficult to bear entering the Big East Tournament in early March. The Huskies have been unbeatable since then, however, winning eight straight games.

"I'll only be relieved when we win," Gordon said. "I'm not content with just being here. We're here for a reason, and that's to win a championship."

Calhoun likes that kind of talk, quite honestly. He didn't make a bold prediction that Connecticut would win tonight or that Okafor would dominate Georgia Tech's Luke Schenscher, but Calhoun did say it's OK for his players to imagine themselves winning the national championship.

It was here at the Alamodome last March that Connecticut players felt the pain of a season ending too soon in a regional semifinal loss to Texas. Since then, UConn players have waited for their chance at redemption in San Antonio - in the Final Four.

"Emeka has mentioned to us on Sunday about cutting nets down," Calhoun said. "Most coaches would shudder. Why? Why would you shudder when he dreams the greatest dream? If it doesn't come true, and Georgia Tech is good enough to beat us, life will go on."

But tonight, everything comes to a standstill for the players involved. For two-plus hours they will compete to decide a championship so much more significant than the one they played for in November.

"All season I've daydreamed, I dreamed at night of how it will feel to stand, center stage in the Final Four in San Antonio as champions," Okafor said. "To actually have a chance to do that, it's a good feeling."

No. 2 Connecticut vs. No. 3 Ga. Tech.

Tipoff: 9:18 p.m. today, Alamodome (44,417)

Records: Connecticut 32-6;Georgia Tech 28-9.

TV: CBS (Ch. 12, 7).

Connecticut

Player	Yr.	Ht.	PPG
Josh Boone	Fr.	6-10	5.9
Rashad Anderson	So.	6-5	11.1
Emeka Okafor	Jr.	6-10	17.5
Ben Gordon	Jr.	6-3	18.5
Taliek Brown	Sr.	6-1	6.2

Coach: Jim Calhoun (431-165, 18th year; 679-302 overall).

Georgia Tech

Player	Yr.	Ht.	PPG
Anthony McHenry	Jr.	6-7	3.4
B.J. Elder	Jr.	6-4	15.0
Luke Schenscher	Jr.	7-1	9.2
Marvin Lewis	Sr.	6-4	11.1
Jarrett Jack	So.	6-3	12.6

Coach: Paul Hewitt (76-53, fourth year; 142-80 overall).

UConn		GT
48.2	FG%	46.8
36.9	Opp. FG%	38.7
40.5	3-pt.%	36.8
32.3	Opp. 3-pt.%	29.7
62.2	FT%	69.5
78.7	PPG	76.7
63.7	Opp.PPG	66.8
9.8	Reb. margin	+0.3
-1.7	TO margin	+1.7

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E-mail ddow@enquirer.com